In pursuit of Ram Lalla & Kumbhmela

Visit to Ayodhya is a trip with mixed feelings of right after wrong and get a feel of Blessings from the divine.

As you land on the 19th January 2025 and are taxing you will be immersed in chants of Jai Shree Ram led by the pilot. Small airport, hired a Uber and reached our hotel within 30 minutes in spite of some typical Indian traffic.

Rameswar vatika the hotel where we stayed is a compact 10 room hotel and well managed. According to the owner he is adding 20 more rooms, hope they will continue to manage the hotel with the same standards.

Owner of our hotel helped us with mobility and the auto driver took us to the banks of Sarayu. As it got

dark the Aarthi started at 6.10 PM, after spending a while, we moved to the Ram mandir, walked from the spot where we were dropped (all autos are not allowed till the temple).

Quickly walked towards the mandir, on the way dropping our footwear & mobiles at the respective counters. Finally reached the steps which lead us to have the darshan of Ram lalla. As we climbed the steps we noticed 5/6 queue lines, we chose the one in the middle. If we had taken the extreme right line, we would have stood closest to the idol as we take a 90 degree left turn towards the exit. Idol is visible from a good distance as it is placed on a high pedestal, if we continue the entire distance looking at the idol, we will have a fulfilling darshan. 

After climbing down the exit stairs, we will be coming to a place where prasad is distributed. On the way out we collected the mobiles and footwear from the respective counters, there is no payment for these services. We were given the locker keys/Tokens on presenting the same we get our stuff, well managed, I felt.

From there, we went on to have a darshan at the Hanuman garhi, a climb without any support of railings and multiple Q lines. Fortunately crowd was not very heavy being a Sunday, also probably because it was almost closing time.

Got back into the auto and got dropped at our hotel. A buffet was laid out and had some hot vegetarian meal, prepared with love and served with care. With all the walking and travel fatigue went off to a good night sleep. My friend who lives in Dallas was worried about the size of the mosquitos in the room, saved by odomos, he too managed to get few winks.

After a 4 cuisine breakfast and some hot tea we boarded the cab booked on MakeMyTrip on our way to Prayagraj. Managed to do the distance in 4.30 hrs., with few stops for fuel, fruits etc. Picked up 3 kgs of peas for the family at Hyderabad.

Hotel Town House booked through Oyo (Hotel Santosh Palace) near the Prayagraj junction, room is big but service was poor, in spite of online booking, filling up a form, register takes its own time. Prices were high as the industry was making hay while sun shines (Maha Kumbh).

After a quick meal went towards the Sangam ghats to have a dip and interaction with the innumerable sadhus who were camping out there.

Like in Ayodhya restricted plying of autos in phases/zones was applicable here too. We could notice extensive availability of electric autos in addition to CNG autos. Fortunately crowds were not very thick and movement was smooth.

I would be failing if I don't mention the arrangements. Heavy visibility of the PM n CM on the hoardings present on both sides of the road. Number of food courts present throughout the long walk. There were enough information stalls put up by the PSUs n government bodies like RBI, LIC etc. Available stalls were selling food at reasonable prices, no fleecing from the bhakts. There were number of public toilets made available through the length of the distance. Near the bathing Ghats changing rooms were provided about 50 meters from the place where you take a dip. Plastic sheets were on sale for people to buy and use them as mats.

Bathing Ghats were well created, one can stand in the water and comfortably take a dip as the water is only waist deep, till you reach the water sand bags are laid for a firm footing, on the other three sides there is a protective barricade made up of plastic material which is floating and firmly placed. There is absolutely no risk of any kind of drowning.

Continuous announcement about non usage of soap and leaving flowers in the water was being made. Even the flower+ Diya sellers were being shooed away by the cops, the people were seen floating a diya and leaving some flowers in the water in memory of the departed. Best thing you notice is continuous cleaning of the area of all the rubbish left by the people and cleaning of the bathing Ghats was continuous of all the floating flowers, diyas & other stuff left by people. I understand there were 5000 people deployed for this purpose.

There was continuous movement of VIP vehicles, it is OK on a less crowded day, wonder what would

be the situation on a very crowded day. Steel sheets were spread near the river bank for easier movement of vehicles and walking public avoiding the sand beneath. Pontoons were built to cross the waterways, shaky but steady.

It is told AI cameras are deployed to count the number of persons visiting the Ghats, whatever maybe the accuracy of the cameras, sheer numbers do not match up to the bearing capacity of a city of the size of Prayagraj.

Prayagraj is a dusty city, with so many people walking their way to the bathing Ghats, you can see the haze created by the dust. It was more visible during our trip to the airport on our way to Hyderabad in the morning hours.

When my friend went in pursuit of the Naga Sadhus, I decided to rest my feet, which carried my bulky body, and waited for my friend to return. Meanwhile entertained myself with the peoples behaviour in front of me.

There was this group of 2 couples with 3 teenage boys, all 5 men managed to take a dip with just wetting only two under wears, Helps to have a common physique which facilitates such happenings. Interestingly one of the women, bent upon buying the plastic sheet, which was being sold for Rs.20 for Rs.10, unfortunately her husband didn't appreciate her bargaining skills and paid of the seller.

Some of the ladies didn't wish to go up to the changing rooms and were having all kinds of difficulty changing on the banks based on the dress they were wearing, either they were not aware of the possibility of a changing room being available or simply didn't wish to go that far.

Hot tea was on sale and vendors were using chulhas, hot flasks to keep it hot. The usual murmura mixture was on offer along with samosas.

There were plenty of unofficial bike taxis on offer, if they are parked and single, that means they are likely to be looking for a customer, only useful for single or max two people. Expensive considering the situation.

All images used in the post Copyright belongs to the respective owners, they have been used for indicative purpose only

RERA why the apathy?

THE REAL ESTATE (REGULATION AND DEVELOPMENT) ACT, 2016 is an act brought in to safe

guard the purchasers from being taken for a ride by the promoters. There were too many such instances around NCR which prompted the Central Government to bring in this law.

This law has been pronounced in 2016 and became a law in all the states with respective state promulgating their own Act. However, if one reads the main Act and the various state versions there is a certain amount of dilution by the state governments for the reasons best known to them.

To prevent money being misused it was mandated to set up Escrow accounts to keep the money in those accounts and only a part of the amount was allowed to be used by the promoter for construction based on certification by authorised persons like Chartered Engineer/Architect etc. This is one reason many a promoter is reluctant to Register his project with RERA.

RERA insists on submitting a list of products and makes/Brands that are proposed to be used in the construction and expects the promoter to use the same. However, what has been submitted by the promoter is not known to the buyers and the intended transparency is lost here.

One of the main criteria for qualifying for registration with respective state RERA is more than 8 flats or 500 Sq Mt land area on which development is taking place. Then how come most projects which fit into this norm are not registered with RERA. RERA though very powerful is understaffed. It is impossible to monitor development that is taking place in the entire state. What is more surprising is this body is under the aegis of the Ministry for Urban Development & Municipalities. Practically every building including an independent house is mandated to take planning permission from the Local body.

Under these circumstances why there is no integration between RERA & Respective local body, more so when both are under the same ministry. Every plan approval which qualifies for registration with RERA should be automatically shared to RERA by the local body. All guideline sheets issued to the promoter by the Local body should set a deadline for RERA registration in the guideline sheet and enforce it. 

Enforcement is much easier for a Local body as they mortgage 10% of the project size with themselves and no promoter can afford to lose the 10% of his project to the government. Occupation certificate which is given when the building is completed releases this 10%, but not having a RERA registration will compulsorily not make the promoter qualify for Occupation Certificate/No Objection Certificate/Completion Certificate (as they are called in different states)
.

As usual the consumer education is little or negligible. Is a buyer really concerned about what is good for him, this is a million dollar question and leaves one wondering, is our Nation full of compromisers. Here is an Act brought out in the interest of the consumer / Home Buyer and they hardly ask the promoter any question regarding RERA registration and or easily convinced by the reply of the promoter. As long as the projects are getting completed, buyer is relatively safe, Alas if there is any Hiccup he will find it difficult to deal with the promoter who would be mightier by size.

Consumer should be able to check about the projects RERA registration status just like how one checks their PNR. The moment an enquiry comes from a mobile phone a OTP should be sent out to the number which is seeking to know the status of the registration. Once the OTP is matched Project registration details as submitted by the promoter should be sent out to the prospective buyer including the GPS location of the project. Any misuse of the information by competitors could be made a punishable offence as a deterrent for misuse.

Banks do ask for RERA registration particulars to approve the project for Home loan sanction process. However, there is no such requirement prescribed for single file processing by the financial institution. 

RERA & Local Body should insist on prominent display of the RERA registration Number and the Plan Sanction Number of the local body at the project site. Any deviation from this should attract a substantial penalty. 

It is interesting to note the effectiveness of RERA seems to be quite strong in the states ruled by the BJP while few other states seem to be lagging in the implementation of the RERA Act in its entirety. One could visit the state RERA websites like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh etc in comparison with states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan the intent to help the consumer is absent in few states while the purpose of this Act is well demonstrated in other states.

Unless the State becomes a protector of the consumer ensuring there is no undue bias towards the wealthy promoters who could contribute to the party fund, consumer will never win.

It is important such an important Consumer centric Act is not diluted by vested interests, who are happy to make some money.  Once all projects get automatically reported to the RERA by the Local bodies, there will be drastic improvement in compliance. Let RERA not become a money spinner for few and be a protector of the consumer as was intended while bringing out the law.